Board directors in GCC unprepared for their roles

Dubai: Board directors in the GCC region are not fully prepared to fulfill their core roles. That's the finding of an opinion poll, conducted by the GCC Board Directors Institute among the 200 participants present at the fourth GCC Regulators Summit held in Doha on Monday and Tuesday, reveals.

Participants in the summit were asked if they believed board directors in the GCC region are fully prepared to fulfil their core roles.

Over 63 per cent answered they did not believe board directors in the GCC region are fully prepared to fulfil their core roles. Of this, 27 per cent also believed that the recent crisis has increased awareness among GCC investors and shareholders about the need to have competent and capable directors on a board. A significant percentage of respondents (36 per cent), indicated directors would require additional training. On the other hand, less than 1 per cent of respondents believed the great majority of GCC directors are fully prepared to fulfil their core roles.

The summit encourages progress in financial regulation and compliance across the GCC region. More than half of the summit participants answered the BDI survey. BDI was also one of the partner organisations behind this year's summit, an event organized annually since 2007 by Complinet. In addition, BDI held a session on the most important barriers to effectiveness boards in the region typically face, and explored the way forward for both boards and directors.

Panellists speaking on this session included Ryan Lemand from the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority, Al Waleed F. Al Senani from the Capital Market Authority of Saudi Arabia, and Alberto Alvarez from McKinsey & Company (one of BDI's founding content partners).

The session was moderated by Shahbaz Khan, a partner and the head of legal and compliance affairs for Investcorp (one of BDI's founding corporate partners).

Effective impact

The GCC Board Directors Institute (BDI) was set-up as a not-for-profit institution with the objective of making a positive impact on the economies and societies of the region by promoting professional directorship and raising the level of board effectiveness.

More specifically, BDI is focused on building the capabilities of senior directors. Each year, BDI organizes several workshops tailored to help senor directors promote good board governance practices within their boards. BDI workshops have a unique set-up: sessions are limited in size, which provide opportunities for a rich dialogue between peers.